best windshield defrosting technique?

[bento]

as the rains have suddenly appeared, i thought would ask something of the sc/carrera owners out there.

what is the best technique for defogging the front windshield.
do you guys blow hot air at it w/ the fresh air, fresh air only, fresh are at windshield and heat to footwells.

i have been experimenting with various techniques and none seem to be the clear "right" way to do it.

any thoughts are appreicated.

db

[Eric Coffey]

Red lever to the right, and center heat leavers (by hand brake) wide open! Oh, and I usually have the windows rolled down an inch or so.

-Eric

[masraum]

It depends. Is the car cold inside/it's been sitting in the driveway/garage all night? If it's cold then blasting the heat full heats up the inside of the car and fogs my windshield up more. I have to start out cool, and gradually change the inside temp of the cabin. If the car has been driven and is warm inside and the windows are fogged already then Exactly what Eric said, lever's full up, center knob (fan) turned to high, and red lever to right. The cracked window allows the pressure to vent to the outside which increases air flow out of the vents. Also higher engine revs make more heat which cleans the windshield faster. Just remember to keep the rev's below 4K until the oil has warmed up. I know I hate that too....

[speeder]

Agree with others, but would add this: in your post you used word "defrost". If there is actual frost on WS, only pure heat will do. Just fog from rain? Wipers and blast fresh air on WS works for me. What you need is cool air; fog will disappear immediately. I put cool air on WS and hot on feet w/ windows cracked open. 911 is actually a great system once you master it, experiment and learn.

[john walker's workshop]

being that i drive a 71 vw pickup to work, a hand held squeegie clears the glass instantly until the heat kicks in.

[Roy M]

Had problems with this until I used hot air with fresh and used heat control to regulate the temperature - started to think the system was quite good after that! (although I always seem to forget when I am on the move).

Also check that your vents (on the heat exchangers) are fully closing - a broken cable will leave them open with a consequent loss of air.

Roy

[don911]

If you have AC, try running the AC along with the heat. The AC should take some of the moisture out of the cabin air and keep your windows from fogging on the inside.

I use the AC more during the winter months up here in the NW than I ever do during our "summer".

[Superman]

Cool air works best at first, then adding warm air as it becomes available. STart and go - if you sit in the car and breathe, the windows will fog. Cracking a window helps a GREAT deal. but most importantly:

The inside of the windshield needs to be ABSOLUTELY CLEAN. Fogs does not seem to stick to clean glass all that well. When I start having a fogging problem, I know it is time to clean the glass.

And by the way, the current results in my longstanding glass maintenance research project suggest that the best and most convenient way to remove the stubborn and troublesome waxy 'road film' on the windshield's outer surface.....is to get soapy water on a paper towel such as those at the gas pump, and rub vigorously over the glass surface. I have tried many other methods that are far less convenient using various chemicals, etc. The soapy paper towel method works better than wax cutting chemicals, oil cutting chemicals, alcohol, shrome polish, etc. FWIW.

[wckrause]

I had my car parked outside during a heavy snowstorm last week. It had at least 8 inchs of snow piled up on top. I started the car up, opened up the heat and defrost full blast, and then started to brush off the snow. Big mistake.

Snow fell through the engine grill, got sucked into the cooling fan and was blown over the exhaust manifolds. The end result was I had steam coming out of my defroster vents! Not the best way to defog a windshield. It took forever to dry the inside of the car out.

[L Sjoberg]

Defrost? I usually end up dropping a couple of "f" bombs and hunching down on the dash so I can see out of the little strip of clear window that exists. I never have been able to figure out how to get any real air into the car without simply putting the windows down.